The Treasure within

Having just moved recently, we can often, now be looking for a particular item. Yes, I know we packed it in one of the boxes, but since we have unpacked, where did I put it? You look for it in the place you might expect to find it, then where you might not ever expect it. When eventually you do find it, there’s elation, even if the value of the item isn’t that great.

In this week’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52) we have a triad of stories about what the Kingdom, or as I prefer kin_dom, of Heaven is like. We don’t read of Kin_dom of God, as the Jews would never have used that term, but YHWH, the tetragrammaton. The author of Matthew’s Gospel is speaking comparing a mustard seed and some yeast; then some treasure in a field – with a pearl of great value; and finally, fishing with a net.

In essence: the kin_dom of Heaven doesn’t work as we might expect; can be found in ordinary places; and we don’t get to decide who is in or not.

Treasure in a field

Where were all the banks back then? If you found something really valuable, where would you keep it safe? Perhaps in something you owned and knew like the back of your hand. Ask any gardener if some has been on their land. Whether it’s been a person or merely a cat, they’ll know.

So, there are two ways we can see this.

(1) If God is worth so much, do we bury it so that others can’t find what we treasure? We might incorporate rules so that membership of the church is so prohibitive that people don’t want to join. Perhaps membership is a cumbersome asset to grasp because of the old fashioned language we might surround the process with. Take membership with the Methodist Church. Here, if the person has already been baptised, there is still the requirement of confirmation. People are asked to respond to:

• Do you turn away from evil and all that denies God?
• Do you turn to God, trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and in the Holy Spirit as helper and guide?
• Will you commit yourself to the Christian life of worship and service, and be open to the renewing power of God?
• Will you seek the strength of God’s spirit as you accept the cost of following Jesus Christ in your daily life?
• Will you witness, by word and deed, to the good new of God in Christ, and so bring glory to God?

This is a very different form of membership to say a gardening or a running club. There, money may be more of an issue, although the fourth question does relate to cost in some way – I think far more than mere money.

Do you feel that these promises need some modern amendment, so that they are more relatable to the person enquiring of faith?

If the kin_dom of Heaven is here, now, are we arbitrarily placing barriers to people exploring faith? I recently looked around a house with a cattle grid outside the front door. At first sight, we stopped and inspected it, pondering a simple and obvious question: why? We had to carefully traverse the series of metal poles to get to the house itself. It made us think twice. Is that what we wish when people seek to join a church?

(2) What amazement as we open up this treasure, wipe off the mud and whatever which has clung to the item after we have dug it out of the field, and then want to share it with others. We do want to share it with others, don’t we? Following the revelation of that treasure, our lives may well be very different. No, let’s not immediately think of luxury and richness, but a change of life style. Money need not be a consideration here, but a pivotal moment in our life when things look so different.

In the story the person who finds that treasure sells all that they have, because possessions must not hinder us from what God has on offer. Again, let’s not think capitalism: ponder on what lifestyle choices we have made which maintain the same journey as before we found God.

If so, have we found true treasure or a stick which allows us to rest a while on the same journey?

Context

The merchants back in the day were not given a great deal of respect, mostly because they didn’t show much respect for the rest of the folk. Hence, in written stories, there may be opportunities to criticise a group of people often despised by folk generally. In this tale, the local kingdom of Tyre has become the hidden focus as it was built by merchants (Isaiah 2:8 and Ezekiel 37).

Question for us

So, where and when does our capitalist views of finance get in the way of our consideration of the kin_dom of God? Not how rich we are, but how significant was that lifestyle choice when we initially found the treasure that is God; and as we look back (perhaps), have we maintained that complete new way of life?